bens_dad

Off on an awfully big adventure
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Right now (7:30am) it is 14 degrees outside.

It is 24 degrees in our bedroom, despite the windows being open all night. Humidity is 92%.

This afternoon it will rise to 26 degrees. I'm glad the office has air conditioning. I'm not looking forward to tonight.

lnr

I wrote this on Bluesky last week, but wanted to save it in slightly longer form

On obesity and weight loss and medication

As a well off, educated, active person, who likes food including healthy things, but still has a lifelong struggle with my weight I do find even the best intentioned discussions around obesity hard. I'm currently heading towards a healthy weight/waist size using Wegovy, but that's a short term aid. What happens when I stop taking it? The advice from my practitioners is that obviously unless I keep up enough healthy changes I will gain weight, and I know that. But I don't know *how*. How to not eat when I'm hungry. How to never want to eat the foods that other normal people eat. I can book in some one-to-one sessions with a dietician and psychologist when I'm closer to trying to maintain my weight, but I honestly don't know how much it will help.

‪

The first time I lost a big chunk of weight I was *sure* I wasn't going to be one of those people who gain it all back again. But I found it so so hard to stay where I wanted to be that eventually I couldn't face trying any more. I do wonder if in future a very low dose of GLP1 agonists or similar will be a long term maintenance option for people like me. Its not an option now. When I hit a BMI of 23.5, or reach 2 years of taking them, I'll be cut off. Then we get to see what realistic help is available at that point. I don't want to have to battle my weight forever, and right now it's not a battle. But how do you even prepare for that?

andrewducker

1. 7 Engineers Suspended After $2.3 Million Bridge Includes Bizarre 90-Degree Turn: (tags:architecture design epicfail India )
2. Edinburgh Airport liquid limit increased from 100ml to two litres: (tags:airport security Technology )
3. The Time Someone Plagiarized Calvin & Hobbes and Nobody Noticed or Cared: (tags:comics plagiarism history art ai )
4. Turns out a great way to get children to want to learn their times tables is to set them to pop songs: (tags:numbers video music )
5. Employers to be banned from silencing harassed or abused staff: (tags:regulation abuse work UK law )
6. Some English children are living in 'Dickensian' poverty, says commissioner: (tags:england poverty children OhForFucksSake )
7. Electricity from large solar arrays with batteries now cheaper than from fossil plants in Germany: (tags:electricity solarpower batteries germany GoodNews )
8. O Fortuna Misheard Lyrics: (tags:music hearing words illusion funny video )

rmc28

Books on pre-order:

Queen Demon (Rising World 2) by Martha Wells (7 Oct 2025)

Books acquired in June:

and read:
1. Playing for Keeps by K A Findlay (Kim Findlay) [7]
2. The Charlie Method (Campus Diaries 3) by Elle Kennedy
and unread:
1. Dying to Meet You by Sarina Bowen
2. Sort Your Head Out by Sam Delaney
3. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Borrowed books read in June:

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
The Domino Pattern (Quadrail 4) by Timothy Zahn [8]
Judgment at Proteus (Quadrail 5) by Timothy Zahn [8]

Annoyingly, when I thought I'd cancelled my KU subscription in May, Amazon thought I'd suspended it for a month, so I got charged again in June. And as the above makes clear, I didn't really get my value for the month of it. The Timothy Zahn Quadrail series is really fun (Trains! In Space! And also galaxy-spanning conspiracy and action adventure with really interesting aliens!) and I'm glad I got to finish it, but I have now definitely and for real cancelled the subscription until further notice.

I don't expect to read much this month either, with the women's football Euros running most of the month. Farocation is running again and I didn't yet get through all the books from last summer, so I'm being even pickier about which ones I decide to pick up this summer.

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

ailbhe

-Doors and windows all closed
-Blinds and curtains all drawn when sunlight falls on the glass
-Mylar foil on the windows
-External shade on the windows and walls where available (we moved a potted tree)
-Margarine tub of water frozen to make a huge ice cube for the flask-with-tap of water, takes longer to melt than same volume of smaller ice cubes so keeps water cool all day
-Cooling scarves
-Drinking water from bottles means we drink more
-Linen clothes
-Watering plants with Baumbad bags and only at night
-Portable aircon units *simpsons meme*

bens_dad

Petition

Protect the environment and stop corporate greenwashing! Don’t scrap the EU Green Claims Directive. Pass the law to:

Independently verify the environmental claims that companies make
Set clear rules to ensure companies make accurate claims
Prevent misleading product claims of climate neutrality and carbon offsetting – that companies make to avoid reducing their emissions
Include strict sanctions for non-compliance.

https://action.wemove.eu/sign/2025-07-antigreenwashing-directive-petition-EN?akid=s6344879..HTW89K

andrewducker

Got halfway to the bus stop to go to the pool and realised I didn't have my shoulder bag. Sprinted home, got it, and made it to the bus.

Got off the bus at the other end, realised Sophia's bag didn't have her swimming costume in it. Got a bus home, grabbed it, now in a taxi.

Fingers crossed that nothing else comes between me and drop-off and work!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

ailbhe

From our Librarything
Title: So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix
Author: Bethany C. Morrow
Publication: St Martin's Press (2021), 304 pages

Started: 2025-06-26 – Finished: 2025-07-02

This is a fascinating idea and absolutely delightfully executed. Little Women, but with the March family as recently freed African-Americans. It changes EVERYTHING about the book, of course, but the threads are still there to link the two. Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and their love interests against a background of a place and perspective in history I was completely unaware of before now.

I found the tone both true to the time and easy to access, and the romantic storylines, in particular, much more satisfying than in the original Little Women. I was especially delighted by Beth, though also, of course, especially heartbroken, though the story as a whole is very light on gory details of atrocities; the emotional details are all there.

Five stars and I'll read any sequels.

andrewducker

1. How Common is Multiple Invention?: (tags:invention research history viaFanf )
2. The death of business attire? Just 7% of workers wear a suit to work: (tags:clothing work UK )
3. FOI Exposes EHRC Anti-Trans Bias: Private Meetings, Legal Echoes, and Policy Capture: (tags:rights UK bigotry OhForFucksSake corruption )

andrewducker

As of this morning (2nd of July), we are now closer to 2050 than 2000.

fanf

https://dotat.at/@/2025-07-02-cmp.html

Here are a few tangentially-related ideas vaguely near the theme of comparison operators.

( Read more... )

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Reading

Photo cross-post

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It ain't no good if you're in the jungle.

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On weight loss medication.

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Interesting Links for 05-07-2025

To-read pile, 2025, June

It's hot

No more “green” lies! Don’t let the EU kill the anti-greenwashing law.

Interesting Links for 04-07-2025

Photo cross-post

Interesting Links for 03-07-2025

Books: So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix

Interesting Links for 02-07-2025

Time marches on

clamp / median / range

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